SPOTLIGHT

Michael Douglas Explains It All

Jessa Crispin on what the actor’s roles tell us about the crisis of masculinity

By Stephanie Bastek Friday, July 11, 2025

SPOTLIGHT

Michael Douglas Explains It All

Jessa Crispin on what the actor’s roles tell us about the crisis of masculinity

By Stephanie Bastek Friday, July 11, 2025

Smarty Pants Podcast

Family Values

Augustine Sedgewick on the history of paternity and patriarchy

Tuning Up

Hiding in Plain Sight

What happens when a progressive city is forced to reckon with its connections to an unjust past?

Asturias Days

A Pair of Elephants

Next Line, Please

Reasons for Living

Read Me a Poem

“The Last One” by W. S. Merwin

Poems read aloud, beautifully

Book Reviews

The Unjolly Green Giant

How C. F.  Seabrook became the Lear of the vegetable fields

Article

The Justice Worker

Rebecca Sandefur’s mission is to provide help to tens of millions of Americans in solving their legal problems

Asturias Days

Ask Already

Read Me a Poem

“In the Summer” by Nizar Qabbani

Poems read aloud, beautifully

Article

On (Middle-Class) Frugality

Does cutting costs mean robbing oneself of life’s small delights?

Asturias Days

Snake in the Grass

Read Me a Poem

“Daddy” by Sylvia Plath

Poems read aloud, beautifully

Next Line, Please

Why Go On?

Article

America the Beautiful

The poem that became a hymn to the nation came about in troubled, polarizing times

Web Essays

Lessons in the Diplomatic Arts

Notes from a musical tour of South Africa

Asturias Days

Big Rock, High Plateau

Read Me a Poem

“The Fig Tree” by Ruth Stone

Poems read aloud, beautifully

Portrait of the Artist

Greg Ito

The life cycle of a candle

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current issue

Cover Story

Jeremy Spoke in Class Today

On guns, MTV, Stephen King, and the nightmare from which we cannot awake

Book Reviews

The Rascal of Pont-Aven

Reassessing a renowned painter’s troubling life

Article

Who Killed the Mercy Man?
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An obscure murder keeps resurfacing in Black story and song

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‘God-Knows-What-Kind-of-Classic’
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Why shouldn’t America’s federal buildings speak to us in a language encompassing the old as well as the new?

Tuning Up

A Fight With Cudgels
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Meditations on death, Goya, and the immutability of art

Cover Story

Jeremy Spoke in Class Today

On guns, MTV, Stephen King, and the nightmare from which we cannot awake

Book Reviews

The Rascal of Pont-Aven

Reassessing a renowned painter’s troubling life

Article

Who Killed the Mercy Man?
loading

An obscure murder keeps resurfacing in Black story and song

Article

‘God-Knows-What-Kind-of-Classic’
loading

Why shouldn’t America’s federal buildings speak to us in a language encompassing the old as well as the new?

Tuning Up

A Fight With Cudgels
loading

Meditations on death, Goya, and the immutability of art